Microsoft Teams announces commitment to privacy in wake of Zoom woes

Video conferencing tools have become a cornerstone of business continuity in their role in connecting people as the COVID-19 pandemic keeps workers home.

Zoom and Microsoft Teams, in particular, saw drastic increases in traffic in March, when most lockdown or social distancing measures came into effect around the world.

Zoom recorded a 535% increase in daily traffic to its download page, while Teams saw its daily active users tally rise by 12 million in a week in mid-March.

But as with many other remote working tools, cybersecurity and privacy are top issues. And with Zoom recently receiving heavy criticism for its security and privacy shortcomings, the spotlight turned to Teams.

Microsoft 365 corporate vice president Jared Spataro said in a blog post released yesterday that the Teams platform already has strong security and privacy policies in place and committed to upholding them throughout this era of uncertainty.

“At Microsoft, privacy and security are never an afterthought,” says Spararo.

“Our approach to privacy is grounded in our commitment to giving you transparency over the collection, use, and distribution of your data.”

Microsoft further asserted how seriously it takes privacy in Teams by laying out its commitments in light of recent uncertainty over video conferencing tools.

The commitments included:

Never using Teams data to serve users ads

Never tracking participant attention or multi-tasking in Teams meetings

Deleting user data after the termination or expiration of their subscription

Ensuring access to users’ data is restricted and carefully defining requirements for responding to government requests for data